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Idyllic scene is disaster with millions of people displaced

July 3 2012, 1:01am, The Times

A farmer feeds his cattle in the flood affected Morigaon district of Assam stateEPA/Stringer

The worst floods in a decade have killed more than 80 people and forced two million from their homes in northeast India. The worst hit state is Assam, with a population of 26 million, which produces more than half India’s tea.

Villagers crossed the countryside by boat in Morigoan district, 90 miles from the state capital, Guwahati, where the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said the central and state governments were “doing everything possible”.

Three quarters of Kaziranga National Park is under water, and an official said rangers were “on their toes” to protect its 2,290 rhinos from opportunist poachers.

Most of the dead were killed when the powerful Brahmaputra river burst its banks, washing away villages, thousands of homes and leaving India’s largest rhinoceros sanctuary…